Obama has been receiving lots of praise from both the Right and the Left. However, the praise always comes with a caution that he lacks experience. I must admit I have been cautious too. But every time I hear what he says and what he does, my caution evaporates. Today, I have very little caution left.
Obama has charisma. Obama makes a stupendous speech. Obama is a uniter who wants to bring all Americans together to achieve a grand future.
Obama thinks that liberals and conservatives can and should work together, even in areas where there appear to be an apparently unyielding polarization. Take the Left-Right controversy about all matters sexual. You would think that if a person such as Pastor Rick Warren, conservative author of the best-seller "The Purpose-Driven Life," invites a liberal such as Barack Obama to speak about AIDS at the World AIDS Conference to his 20,000 member Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, Obama would go, make a speech and receive polite applause. But that is not what happened.
Immediately after the invitation was given, the Religious Right erupted with condemnation of Warren because he invited a liberal Democrat who believes a woman has a right to choose an abortion when necessary. They spouted hate-filled venom. At this point I must praise Rick Warren, who though an evangelical Christian, had the courage to invite Barack Obama who disagrees with him about abortion and other matters related to sex. A truly American action.
When Senator Barack Obama spoke at the AIDS conference, he did not mince words. He said what he thought and believed:
I also believe that we cannot ignore that abstinence and fidelity may too often be the ideal and not the reality - that we are dealing with flesh and blood men and women and not abstractions - and that if condoms and potentially microbicides can prevent millions of deaths, they should be made more widely available.
He said a lot more in a very impressive, religious and heart-felt speech. This is what he said toward the end:
Or we can embrace another tradition of politics - a tradition that has stretched from the days of our founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another - and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.
Obama delivered an excellent speech. You should read the whole speech.
What kind of reaction did Obama receive? He got a standing ovation! He told them what he believed, which contradicted what the audience believed, and yet the audience stood and applauded strongly! The audience embraced Obama because it agreed that "what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart." The audience wanted to be part of a broader community consisting of all Americans.
An excellent way of living up to our motto "E pluribus unum," ("from many, one") is to elect Barack Obama president of America in 2008.
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